Hugh Sargent (Sariant), the earliest known ancestor of the family, lived in Courteenhall, County of Northampton. Courteenhall was the inheritance of the Wake family, which traces its descent back to Hereward the Wake, to a time anterior to the Norman Conquest. It is five and a quarter miles southerly from the town of Northampton, and in 1831 contained one hundred and forty-four inhabitants. The church is dedicated to Saint Peter and Saint Paul.

Prefixed to the first volume of the parish register, which begins in the year 1538, and folded to its size, is a large piece of parchment, on which is very neatly transcribed many pedigrees. One of them is of the family of Sargent. There can be no doubt that this piece of work, which is both most useful and rare, was written by a former rector, who had at first hand the facts which he recorded.

The rector of the church, Rev. Archibald Wake (1895), says, "The parchment shows that the family were in Courteenhall in 1554, and were of gentle blood; and possibly the Sargents were in the parish before a Wake entered it."

Margaret, wife of Hugh Sargent, was daughter of Nicholas and Agnes (Masters) Gifford, of the Abbey of St. James, which was a western suburb of the town of Northampton. (See "Gifford Pedigree.") This abbey was a religious estate of considerable note, founded before the year 1112, by William Peverel, natural son of William

the Conqueror, and to which he (Peverel) gave forty acres of land. It is called St. James End.

Hugh Sargent must have been born about the year 1530. He died Feb. 23, 1595/6, (buried 1st of March).

That he heeded the Scripture injunction, "Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth," is evidenced by the fact that he was the father of fifteen children, the eldest having been born in 1556, and the youngest in 1579.

Ellen, wife of Roger Sargent, was daughter of William Makernes, of Finedon, thirteen and a half miles north-easterly from Northampton. The will of William Makernes, dated March 10, 1612,. proved March 30, 1616, names sons, Richard, Edmund, George, and William, "son-in-law Roger Seargeant," and daughter, Margery Chapman.

Roger Sargent (probably named for his mother's brother, Roger Gilford, or his great-grandfather of the same name) was junior bailiff in 1616 and 16 17, and mayor of Northampton in 1626. The following is a copy of his will : — .... etc.

[EXPLANATORY NOTE.--The parish registers of Courteenhall, co. Northampton, begin in 1538. In the back of the first volume a parchment chart has been pasted, on which the pedigrees of many Courteenhall families, including the Sargent family, have been written. These prdigrees were probably entered by the vicar of the paris, the handwriting and ink showing that the work was done about 1590. The vicar evidently asked the various families in the parish for information

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about the events in their histories that had occurred outside the parish of Courteenhall, and thus he secured for the chart the records of the older children of Hugh Sargent, who were born probably before the Sargent family moved to Courteenhall. The first Sargent entry in the Courteenhall registers is the record of the baptism of George, son of Mr. Hugh Sargent, Gent., 2 Apr. 1573. Later the vicar added records of some of the children of Roger Sargent, son of Hugh, which show that Roger Sargent of Courteenhall was identical with the Roger Sargent who family records are found in the registers of the parish of All Saints, Northampton(*) Below are give the statements about the Sargent family found on the parchment chart, and discrepancies between the statements of the chart and the entries in the parish registers proper are indicated in footnotes.]

In the "Sargent Genealogy," published in 1895 by the late Aaron Sargent of Somerville, Mass., the ancestry of William Sargent, on of the early settlers of Malden, Mass., is carried back to his grandfather, Hugh Sargent of Courteenhall, co. Northampton, England;

(*) Vide supra, vol. 74. pp. 281, 183.

(f) According to the parish registers Elizabeth Sargent married 25 June 1576 Thoms Flynte.

(+) Probably the date of birth, as he was baptized 20 September 1560 (vide supra, vol. 74, p. 281).

($) Probably the date of birth, as she was baptized 21 Oct. 1593 (ib.).

(||) According to the parish registers John Sargent was buried 10 December 1614. His wife is recorded as daughter of Henry Church and Marie his wife, and she was baptized as such 21 December 1574. As Joyce Sargent, "a poore woman." she was buried 14 May 1643. The children of John and Joyce Sargent were: 1. Spuria, baptized 4 January 1602/3; buried 9 [5, according to the chart] January 1602/3. 2. Marie, baptized 7 December 1604. 3. Jane, baptized 5 September 1606; married 4 November 1633 John Locky. 4. Alice, baptized 19 May 1609. 5. Henry, baptized 23 March 1611 [1611/12]. 6. Edward, baptized 4 March 1613 [1613/14]; he and his wife Alice had John, baptized 7 Janurary 1641/2, and Anne, baptized 26 March 1643. [Edwaqrd Sargent, son of John and Joyce, seems to have been the only male Sargent who remained in the parish.]

(|f) He was of Stony Stratford.

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but the statements about the English Sargents printed in this book contain several errors, the documentary evidence on which these statements are based is omitted, and comparatively little information is give about the ancestry of Margaret Gifford, wife of Hugh Sargent and grandmother of the New England immigrant. .... etc.

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1. HUGH SARGENT, of East Haddon and later of Courteenhall, co. Northampton, Gent., born probably about 1530, died 28 Feb. 1595/6, and was buried at Courteenhall 1 Mar. 1595/6. He married, about 1554(f) MARGARET GIFFORD, born about 1535, daughter

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of Nicholas, Gent., and Agnes (Maister) of St. James near Northampton. (Vide supra, 19.) Children: (*)

2. ROGER SARGENT (Hugh), of the town of Northampton, mercer, born about 1560, was buried in the parish of All Saints, Northampton, in July (perhaps 5 July) 1649. He married, 3 June 1589, ELLEN (or ELEANOR MAKERNES (or MACHARNES), baptized at Finedon, co. Northampton, 24 Nov. 1564, buried at Northampton 20 Oct. 1645, daughter of William and Agnes (Harrgat) of Finedon.(t)

Roger Sargent was an alderman of Northampton in 1616, senior bailiff the following year, and mayor in 1626. his will dated 12 Apr. 1649 and proved 22 Feb. 1649/50, is printed in Aaron Sargent's "Sargent Genealogy," 1695, pages 16-17.

vii. DOROTHY, bapt. 6 Mar. 1599/1600; living 12 Apr. 1649; m. at All Saints, 30 Nov. 1634, THOMAS BALL, who d. before 12 Apr. 1549. In his will, dated 12 Apr. 1649, Roger Sargent, after making other bequests to Dorothy and others, gives "all the rest of my goods household stuffe wearinge apparell gowns cattell and chattells whatsoever to my daught'r Ball w'ch hath most neede of my helpe by reason of the want and poverty wherein she was left by her husband Thomas Ball late deceased."

xi. ELIZABETH, bapt. 26 Feb 1608/9; living 12 Apr. 1649, when her father in his will refers to her as "my daughter Sprigge;" d. before 1680; m. (1) 9 Oct. 1626 ROBERT BANKS; m. (2) before 12 Apr. 1649 HENRY SPRIGG; m. (3) after 12 Apr. 1649 GEORGE NORWOOD.

3. WILLIAM SARGENT (Roger, Hugh), of Northampton, haberdasher, and of New England, baptized in the parish of All Saints, Northampton, 20 June 1602, died at Barnstable, in the Plymouth Colony in New England, 16 Dec. 1682. he married first, probably about 1627, HANNAH ----, who was buried at All Saints 25 Sept. 1632; secondly, probably about 1634, MARY ---- , who died probably in 1637; and thirdly, probably in 1638, SARAH (----) MINSHALL, who died at Barnstable in the Plymouth Colony 12 Jan. 1688/9, widow of William Minshall of Whitchurch, co Salop, Gent.

William Sargent, like his father, resided in the parish of All Saints, Northampton. He was made a freeman of Northampton 20 July 1626, being then called son of Roger Sargent. He was senior bailiff in 1632-3. His name appears for the last time in the register of All Saints in the entry of the baptism of his daughter Mary, 22 Jan. 1636/7, and his is

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next found at Charlestown, Mass., where he was admitted to the church on 10 Mar. 1638/9. .... etc.

William Sargent was admitted a freeman in the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1639. He removed to Malden, Mass., where he was a deacon and lay preacher in the church. His farm was in that part of Malden which was set off in 1870 as the town (now the city) of Everett. He removed to Barnstable, probably in 1656 or 1657, was made a freeman of the Plymouth Colony in 1657, and was a preacher also at Barnstable. His will, dated 9 Mar. 1679/80, is printed in Aaron Sargent's "Sargent Genealogy," where also further details of his life in New England and a genealogy of his descendants may be found.

Children by first wife, baptized at All Saints, Northampton:

i. ELIZABETH, bapt. 3 July 1628; bur. at All Saints 5 Jan. 1629/30.

ii. HANNAH, bapt. 13 July 1629; came to New England; d. at Reading, Mass., 15 Dec. 1717, "being near a 100 years old"; m. in 1649 HENRY FELCH of Reading, who d. there 11 Nov. 1699. Eleven children.

outh Colony, b. in 1638, bur. 8 Sept. 1676, s. of Josiah and Margaret and newphew of Gov. Edward Winslow; m. (2) in July 1677, as his second wife, RICHARD BOURNE of Sandwich in the Plymouth Colony; m. (3) in 1684, as his second wife, ELDER JOHN CHIPMAN of Sandwich. One son by first husband.

John Sargent Sr. was the son of William Sargent and Sarah Minshall who were English immigrants to America. He was my 7th great-grandfather. Father of Fifteen children. He was married three times. Married to Deborah Hillier, my 7th great-grandmother, Mary Bense, and Lydia Chipman. Lydia was the granddaughter of John Howland of the "Mayflower." His military service was in 1676 as a soldier in Major Gilliam's Company, in garrison at brookfield, MA

Brief Biography

John Sargeant went to Barnstable with his father, and was admitted to inhabit there between 1662 and 1666. He returned to Malden about 1669, where he was a selectman for six years.

In May, 1695, the town of Malden made a division of two thousand three hundred acres of common lands. The distribution was by lot to all freeholders in the town, in proportion to their ratable estates, an average of about thirty acres to each man. Among the names are John Sargent, Sr., and John Sargent, Jr. It was voted by the town, showing confidence in his integrity and fairness, "that John Sargent, sen'r, is the man to draw the lots."

His slate gravestone is in Bell Rock Cemetery (formerly the "Old Malden Burial-ground"). Like his transatlantic great-grandfather, he heeded the scripture injunction; and all his fifteen children are named in his will of May 20, 1708.

It is a circumstance worthy of incidental mention, perhaps, that the first and third wives of John (who was born in Massachusetts Bay Colony) were born in Plymouth Colony; so that the mingled blood of the Pilgrim and the Puritan of these two noted colonies (which afterwards became the Commonwealth of Massachusetts) flows in the veins of all his descendants.